Nobody asked me but these are the people and things I am thankful for:

–Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple and his lovely wife Stephanie Mencimer, an alleged human pooper. The story in Wemple’s own paper (which he refuses to dispute) that she got arrested for picking up dog doo from the ground and hurling it at a neighborhood shop keeper makes is a source of endless mirth.

It has also resulted in my daily Wemple fecal quota, at least one reference per day inserted into otherwise unrelated stories on everything from the free speech rights of government contractors to a military activist who fights Christian proselytization by armed forces brass. Journalism professors should make students do the same thing to sharpen their writing skills.

–Fox News Wannabee Ed Schultz, who instead of just settling an obviously embarrassing breach of partnership lawsuit for a lousy $80,000, was bright enough to spend maybe close to $800,00 taking it to trial. That made for nearly one week of hilarious Daily Caller stories on all the shenanigans that unfolded in Washington federal district court this May.

–Schultz, again, for letting me know that if I am on “Hardball,” it is a good idea to sit a safe distance from Chris Matthews.

–The Daily Caller because no other conservative publication in the country would let a writer accuse all of the Donald Trump’s critics of engaging in a circle jerk. All the others likely consider themselves too high class to publish something like that .

–NBC producer and sound engineer Michael Queen for having the courage to wage a four years and counting legal fight against Ed Schultz, defender of the little guy, for not paying him for arranging the now defunct “Ed Show.”

–MSNBC president Phil Griffin for bringing to my attention the really fascinating question that Ed Schultz asked Barack Obama at his first presidential press conference. But for some strange reason, nobody else in America heard the question.

–Dave De Jesus, who had the courage and tenacity, to sue the great white liberals at the Washington Post for race discrimination after his Caucasian boss fired him abruptly without cause or warning after nearly 20 years of impeccable work as a WaPo ad salesman. He should be an inspiration to everyone about how to weather indignities and injustices without wallowing in self-pity or succumbing to debilitating hatred.

–A certain scary little Jewish girl who shared her column with me for eight months, spending countless hours editing my stories. Very few people in Washington would do something like that.

–The Media Research Center board members who apparently contacted MRC president Brent Bozell after I told them he and Newsbusters.com editor Tim Graham were ignoring the Ed Schultz scandal. Graham, who probably deep-sixed the story because he resents Betsy Rothstein mocking him unmercifully, published an item on the lawsuit the next day.

–The tanning salon that gave me a discounted one year membership so I could finally qualify for Ben Smith’s fellowship program for “journalists of color.”

–My good friend from summer camp with whom I just re-united (through a postal mail letter with my Daily Caller articles, not Facebook!)

He taught me the glories of inciting racial tensions by asking our Latino counselor if he belonged to the notorious Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN. (Name withheld so he is not forced to attend workplace racial sensitivity seminars.)

–My grandmother Ruth Goldstock, who introduced me to the wider world and the battle between good and evil, when I was only in elementary school. She told me stories about the founding of Israel, the rise of Hitler, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor and the New Deal. They were so vivid somebody listening might have thought she had lived through these events.

But she experienced them all from afar in the New York City area. Bobbum, as I called her, had never even been to Israel, Washington or anywhere outside the United States, except Italy in 1969.

–My grandfather Louis Goldstock, who taught me the importance of self-sacrifice and fealty. On a less lofty note, he told great jokes.

I just used money she left me to buy the video camera that I have used for ambush interviews of Marty Baron and Al Sharpton, with plenty more on the way.

–The liberal-leaning Washington lawyer who spends lots of time talking to me off the record for legal stories, which is crucial to me getting the facts and analysis correct.

Most people in DC don’t help reporters without some kind of personal gain. Plus, he, she or it (that is my attempt at trans sensitivity) is all the more cool because h/s/i does not mind that many of these articles are liberal hit pieces.

–My mother and father, who are the best parents anybody could possibly have.

I got my creativity and curiosity from my mother. My father, basically an old-style Democratic from the days before weirdos took over the party, is responsible for my indifference to liberal pieties.